Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor
Schools: An Historical PerspectivePart V. The Stanford Era
1909-

Chapter 32: Trustees Defend the Medical Department,
1912-1914

During the crucial period from 1912 through 1914 the rapid advance
and promising outlook of the Department of Medicine so impressed
the Trustees that one of them remarked to President Pritchett (who
continued to advocate union with the University of California)
that "the medical school was the only thing that had put any life
into the University." The Department had so completely won its way
into the affections of the Trustees that the plans announced by
the Board at the May 1913 meeting included the following support
for the medical program:
[1]

In recognition of the leading position and progress of the
Medical Department, and in order to at least partially provide
for the increased expansion to the teaching as well as to the
hospital facilities, it is intended to entirely renovate the
present large hospital building, to add a substantial wing for
private patients, and to start the erection of a new woman's
hospital.

Lane Medical Library

As an earlier evidence of their favorable disposition toward
the Medical Department, the Trustees moved promptly to honor their
commitment in the articles of consolidation to erect and maintain
a library to be named for Dr. Levi Cooper Lane and located on land
already purchased.

Before their deaths, as previously noted, Dr. and Mrs. Lane
had architectural drawings prepared for a truly monumental library
building to be known as the "Hall of Aesculapius." However, Dr.
Ellinwood's appropriation of two thirds of the Lane endowment for
his personal use so reduced the funds available for a library that
construction of the "Hall" was no longer feasible. Instead the
Stanford Trustees advanced funds to the amount of $80,000 against
the real property in that portion of the Lane estate deeded to
Stanford in the consolidation agreement. With the addition of the
$20,000 contributed by the Cooper Directors, the Board of Trustees
under the presidency of Trustee Timothy Hopkins constructed a
spacious library building on the corner of Sacramento and Webster
Streets across from the original buildings of Cooper Medical
College.

On November 3, 1912, this substantial edifice intended to house
the Lane Medical Library of Leland Stanford Jr. University was
formally dedicated at San Francisco. Addresses were given on that
occasion by Dr. Emmet Rixford, Professor of Surgery; Mr. Timothy
Hopkins, President of the Board of Trustees; and David Starr
Jordan, President of the University. [2]

The first address was delivered by Professor Rixford who was
from the beginning the driving force behind the founding and
development of the Library of Cooper Medical College. From before
his formal appointment as Librarian in 1895 to this Dedication of
the Lane Medical Library in 1912, Dr. Rixford gave as much of his
time to library affairs as he could spare from his busy surgical
practice. His address was a tribute to the careers and
contributions of Cooper and Lane, and included the history of Lane
library which he referred to as his "most beloved hobby."

He spoke of Dr. Adolph Barkan, Professor of Ophthalmology,
Laryngology and Otology as the "angel of the library" and told how
Dr. Barkan, when he retired from practice, gave his entire library
in the specialties to form the nucleus of a library on
ophthalmology, laryngology and otology. Earlier Dr. Barkan had
given Cooper College $5000 to create a so-called Teacher's Fund
designed to assist teachers in the school to travel for study and
instruction. When the College properties had been given to
Stanford there was no longer need for the Teacher's Fund. The
$5000 was therefore turned into an endowment for the Barkan
Library of Ophthalmology, Otology and Laryngology within the Lane
Library. To this endowment Dr. Barkan contributed another $5000.
Later he gave $10,000 as the beginning of an endowment fund for a
library on the History of Medicine. Today, the generosity of Dr.
Barkan is still gratefully acknowledged by the designation in 1996
of a spacious room in the Department of Ophthalmology as: The
Barkan Library in memory of Drs. Adolph and Hans Barkan for their
contribution to the advancement of ophthalmologic teaching,
research and treatment.

Dr. Rixford traced the growth of the Cooper College Library
which, after the death of Dr. Lane in 1902, inherited Dr. Lane's
personal library of 2000 volumes. Also included was much valuable
historical material as well as many important monographs and bound
periodicals.

By 1905 the College Library had grown to 10,000 volumes. At
about this time Cooper College purchased the New York Hospital
Library from the New York Academy of Medicine as we have already
mentioned. This acquisition increased the College Library to some
40,000 volumes. In addition Dr. Rixford, by assiduous cultivation
of other sources, acquired numerous and sundry gifts of books and
periodicals. It now became clear that Cooper College had a great
library - certainly the greatest in the West and among the best
nationally.

Small wonder then that President Jordan, when negotiating the
consolidation of Cooper Medical College with Stanford University,
made it a sine qua non that the Cooper College Library (to be
known as the Levi Cooper Lane Library of Medicine and Surgery)
should go into Stanford's possession along with the other
properties of the College. To this the Directors of the College
readily agreed but stipulated that the Library remain in San
Francisco and with the other properties be used for "Medical
Education in the sense of teaching young men and young women to be
practitioners of Medicine." The Directors would not agree to Dr.
Jordan's suggestion at the time that the College properties be
used merely as a research institution. [3]

Trustee Hopkins's remarks at the Dedication were, as behooved a
man of wealth and business interests, concerned with the broader
community implications of the Lane Library which he viewed as a
capacious reservoir of learning destined to enhance the cultural
life of San Francisco: [4]

We meet to dedicate this handsome library building to the
cause of education and to humanity, and in behalf of the Board of
Trustees of Stanford University, I welcome you.

It is no severe strain upon the imagination to believe
that, as time rolls on, the three great metropolitan cities of
the United States will be Chicago, in its center, and New York
and San Francisco upon its two seaboards. A city becomes a
metropolis, in the broad acceptance of the term, at that stage in
its development when, the commercial and financial resources
being firmly established, it can turn attention to the Arts and
Sciences and adorn itself with libraries, museums, art galleries,
opera houses, and other evidences of the cultural side of life.

Today, in opening this Medical Library to the public, our
city by the Golden Gate has met one more requirement for entrance
into the metropolitan sisterhood, she is one step nearer the
brilliant destiny awaiting her.

The cities of the Unites States in which special buildings
are devoted to medical libraries are few in number, and this
building, in addition to marking an epoch in our metropolitan
progress, has the distinction of being the first structure of a
strictly non-utilitarian character (other than churches) to be
completed in the rebuilding of our municipality. The collection
of books it contains may also well be a subject of civic pride,
since it ranks among the greatest in size and importance of the
medical libraries in America.

President Jordan's lengthy and wide-ranging closing address called
attention to the role of the private university in the challenging
years ahead: [5]

We have met today to mark a milestone in the history of
Stanford University on the one hand, and in the history of
medical education on the other. It is a milestone that we mark,
not an epoch, for epoch-making events do not often appear more
than once in a life time. But a milestone marks progress even
though after it is set up all shall go on as before.

Stanford University is now twenty-one years old. Its days
were opened on a hopeful morning of October in California, where
all days are hopeful, just twenty-one years ago. It has come of
age. It is old enough to be doing the work of a grown university.

And there is no work of the University more worthy or more
needed than medical instruction and medical research, the
training of men who shall help their fellows in all their bodily
ills, on the basis of the best and fullest knowledge, while
themselves adding day by day to the world's stock of wisdom. In
these days medical research stands on the firing line of the
advance of science. There is no branch of knowledge which is
moving more rapidly and there is none which contributes equally
to the aggregate of human welfare.

We dedicate today the home of the Lane Medical Library of
Stanford University to medical practice and medical research. It
is the gift of the will of Mrs. Levi Cooper Lane. It begins its
existence with a handsome building adequate for its needs for
years to come. When it must be extended we hope that the grateful
people of San Francisco will be here to see that all its needs
are met.

It has already on this initial day a library of nearly
forty-thousand volumes, all relating to medical practice and
medical research, a good number of books as you will see when you
compare it with other libraries devoted elsewhere to the same
subject.

The importance to San Francisco of such a collection of
medical books kept up-to-date by a steady inflow of the best
journals and monographs is obvious. The library is the natural
center for creative effort hence for all research, since there is
no loss of energy so needless as in the doing again that which
has been well done before. All new work must be based upon
knowledge that has gone before. The breath of life of all
research is the joy of seeking for the unknown. Chance
discoveries of great moment in medicine are no longer to be made
at random. Piece by piece must new truths be found and
correlated. Each investigator must rest his work upon that of
others. He must stand on the shoulders of the past if he is to
look into the future. . . .

Dean Ray Lyman Wilbur, who was deeply involved in the planning of
the library building, was not one of the speakers at the
Dedication Ceremony but was invited to contribute the following
appendix to the published proceedings. He used this opportunity to
describe the library facilities and to make a progress report on
the academic development of the Medical Department: [6]

The new Lane Medical Library Building, in which the volumes of
the University's Department of Medicine are now shelved and at
the service of the students of the Department and of the medical
profession, is not only thoroughly modern and convenient, but
beautiful as well. Constructed on a steel frame, the exterior is
of smooth Colusa sandstone of a soft gray color, while the
interior gives an impression of spacious substantiality and
quiet. [7] [8]

The general reading room, with its open shelves of reference
volumes, its broad reading tables and its quiet green walls, is
particularly fortunate . . . The forty-thousand volumes which at
present constitute the library and make it the largest of any of
the university medical libraries in America, are easily
accommodated on the shelves, which can hold half as many more,
without further addition.
[9] [10]

The dedication of the Lane Medical Library Building marks
the completion of the first stage in the development of the
Stanford University Medical Department. In fact its possession is
a great asset in the development of proper medical teaching and
makes the new Medical Department unique in this country.

The high standard that Stanford set in medical education,
requiring three years of University work for admission into
medicine, placed the Medical Department at once in the front rank
of such institutions. The requirements are equal to those of
Cornell and Western Reserve University and not unlike those of
Harvard, Columbia and Pennsylvania. Johns Hopkins requires an A.
B. degree for admission; Harvard admits upon an A. B. degree but
permits students who have covered certain special subjects to
enter after two years of University work.

It has been a source of gratification that, in spite of
these high requirements, forty-six students have registered in
Medicine even before a single class has been graduated. The class
of five, sent up to San Francisco in January, 1910, has now been
increased to ten, two students having joined it from the
University of California last year, and one each from Johns
Hopkins, the University of Chicago and Cooper Medical College
this year. It is anticipated that there will be a slow but steady
growth in the number of students but that the number admitted
will always be small.

The space made available in the Clinical and Laboratory
Building by the removal of the Library, together with a portion
of the former auditorium, is being remodeled and within a month
the Medical Department will have the best equipped outpatient
clinics west of Chicago. On 1 July 1912, the control of Lane
Hospital passed into the hands of the Clinical Committee of the
Medical Department so that the University Hospital is now under
the direct supervision of the instructing staff, a most important
advantage in proper medical teaching and one possessed by but few
American medical schools. Furthermore, arrangements have been
made by the Board of Trustees to facilitate the business
management of the Hospital and Medical Department in San
Francisco and to improve the service for the private rooms. It is
of sentimental interest that the home formerly occupied by Dr.
and Mrs. Lane, which is in the block opposite the hospital, is
now being used as a temporary nurses' home.

As at present organized - with the Lane Medical Library,
Lane Hospital; the outpatient clinics and the laboratories in San
Francisco; the excellent services at the San Francisco Hospital;
and with the laboratories of Chemistry, Physiology, Anatomy,
Bacteriology, Pharmacology, Physics, Zoology and Botany on the
campus - there is no better Medical Department for a limited
number of students in this country.

Like all growing things, the Medical Department has many
pressing needs. Among them are the construction of a new nurses'
home and women's clinic, for which land is likewise available,
and the construction of a new children's hospital. The further
endowment of Lane Hospital and the endowment of certain
professorships is very much needed in order that the institution
may grow in the best way. A number of alumni and others have
contributed books and money to the Library and money to the
Hospital, both for the upkeep of beds and for special expenses. .
.

In general, it can be said that for the short time that
Stanford has been engaged in medical education, she has made a
good record. Future development has been planned for in such a
way that advantage can be taken of any help, great or small, that
comes to the Medical Department.

The advent of Stanford into San Francisco is of much
significance. The number of people concerned is alone worthy of
mention. Besides the Faculty and students, there is a
metropolitan hospital with an average of 150 patients, changing
from day to day, a Training School of 80 nurses, and employees of
like number and from 50,000 to 60,000 visits per year in the
out-patient clinical departments.

Medical Department entitled School of Medicine and
Executive Head, the Dean

As chairman of President Jordan's Committee of Three on
Organization of the Department of Medicine, Professor John M.
Stillman wrote the following letter to Dr. Emmet Rixford,
Secretary of Cooper Medical College: [11]

20 November 1908:

Dear Dr. Rixford: It has been suggested that the
designation of the medical organization as "Department" or
"School" may have some influence on the prestige of the school or
department in the future development, and the members of the
Medical Committee might consider that question.

I enclose for reference a list of the official titles of
the medical organizations of a number of the prominent
universities of this country.

If there occur to you any reasons for believing that there
would be a gain in adopting the designation of "School" instead
of the name "Department" which is at present the only unit
recognized in the University, I should be pleased to hear from
you. Also I should be pleased to hear your individual preference
as to the name which would be most advantageous and dignified.

Very truly yours, J. M. Stillman

Professor Stillman listed 15 universities of which only
three (Harvard, Columbia and Indiana) used the title "medical
school." The remaining 12 universities (including Johns Hopkins,
Yale, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Chicago, California, etc.,) used the
title "department" or "college."

Stanford retained the titles "Stanford University Department of
Medicine" and "Executive Head of the Department of Medicine" until
the Board of Trustees adopted the following resolutions at its
meeting in May 1913: [12]

Resolved, That the recommendation of the President of the
University that the use of the term "Medical School" be
authorized to designate the professional work within the
Department, the relation of the Department of Medicine and its
students to the University at large to be in no wise changed by
the use of this phrase, be approved;

And, That the title of Executive Head of the Department
shall be "Dean."

President Jordan appointed Chancellor

When Herbert Hoover became a member of the Board of Trustees
in the fall of 1912 he took part in its activities with such
characteristic energy, enthusiasm, and idealistic vision that the
president of the Board, Timothy Hopkins, said: "we have got more
ideas from Hoover in a week than we have had before in a year." It
was at Hoover's suggestion that the Board honored President Jordan
with appointment to the newly created position of Chancellor,
effective Commencement Day, 23 May 1913. This appointment freed
Dr. Jordan from the burdens of University administration so that
in the coming three years (up to 1916 when he would reach the
retirement age of 65) he might divide his time as he saw fit
between work for the cause of international peace and educational
studies outside or inside the University itself.

Professor John Casper Branner appointed President

It was again at Hoover's instance that the Board appointed Dr.
John Casper Branner to succeed Dr. Jordan as President of the
University, also effective 23 May 1913. Dr. Branner, Professor of
Geology since the founding of the University in 1891, had been
Vice President of the University since 1898, and Dr. John Maxson
Stillman succeeded him in the vice presidency. Dr. Branner
specified that he would serve as President for a period of only
two years (that is until he reached the retirement age of 65), and
Hoover proposed to the Trustees that Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur should
be Branner's successor as President of the University. [13] [14]

Herbert Hoover and Professor Branner were no strangers.
During Hoover's student days they had developed a close and
lasting relationship. The young Hoover entered Stanford with the
first class of students in 1891, majoring in Geology under
Professor Branner who held him in high regard and employed him as
his office assistant. The Professor was much impressed with the
young student's ability and never forgot how Hoover, when assigned
a task, accomplished it quickly and efficiently. Initiative and
dependability were qualities the Professor greatly admired.

On 29 May 1895 Hoover received his A. B. degree in Geology
from Stanford University. Early in his senior year, a freshman
named Lou Henry enrolled in the geology program at Stanford. She
was a fellow native of Iowa which at once gave them some common
ground and the more they were together in the classroom, on field
trips and at social gatherings, the closer their friendship. Three
years later, on 25 May 1898, Lou Henry also graduated from
Stanford with an A. B. degree in Geology. She and Bert had by then
a tacit agreement that after her graduation and his establishment
as an engineer they would be married.

On 11 February 1899, in the living room of her family home in
Monterey, Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover were married by Father
Mestres the local parish priest with whom Lou had collaborated in
community programs. Father Mestres at first demurred at performing
the ceremony explaining that, since the couple were not Catholics,
he could not do so without a special dispensation from the bishop
of the diocese - who graciously gave his consent in response to
the earnest appeal of Bert and Lou. [15] [16]

Hoover and Lou Henry regarded Professor Branner as their
mentor and enjoyed a cordial relationship with him. Under the
circumstances Hoover probably expected President Branner to be
cooperative and support such policies as he and the other Trustees
might adopt.

Such was decidedly not the case. The issue over which
President Branner and the Trustees promptly clashed was the
funding of the Department of Medicine. Dr. Branner had not favored
acquiring Cooper Medical College and said that only one member of
the faculty besides Dr. Jordan had supported the consolidation.
When Dr. Jordan asked for Branner's opinion on the subject he
said, "Let it alone; it is nothing but a lot of junk." Branner's
appointment as President of the University did not change his
negative view of the Medical Department, and it increased his
concern for the welfare of the other departments.

At the time of the merger with Cooper Medical College, the
trustees agreed that the new Medical Department should be assured
of no more than $25,000 a year (such expenditure not to begin
until after the end of five years) and that, beyond this amount,
the already established departments of the University should have
priority on funds. Dr. Jordan soon recognized that this
restriction on funding the Medical Department was going to cause
trouble but he was determined to get a strong academic program
firmly established in the Department as soon as possible. To
achieve this goal Dr. Jordan obtained approval from the Trustees,
who were generally supportive of his aims, to allocate the
statutory $25,000 to that portion of the work of the Department
carried out in San Francisco, and to charge the salaries in
anatomy, bacteriology and pharmacology (which were located on
campus) to the University budget. In this and various other
creative ways Dr. Jordan was able during his presidency, with the
tacit approval of a compliant Board of Trustees, to obtain extra
funds for the Medical Faculty whose stellar performance in San
Francisco convinced the Trustees that their support was justified.

At the same time, however, the Trustees considered the University
budget to be badly strained and, although President Jordan
suggested various means of increasing income such as charging
higher tuition and various special fees to the students, the
Trustees decided that programmatic retrenchment was essential to
balancing the budget. Hoover was in England at the time and the
Board did not seek his advice but proceeded in his absence to
adopt the following Resolution on 29 August 1913. [17]

Resolved, that in the opinion of this Board, the University
funds and income will be insufficient to adequately extend and
develop all departments of the University, and that it will
therefore be necessary to select such courses of education as may
be so developed to the highest point, abandoning or reducing
other courses; and that the President is requested to submit to
the University Committee of this Board his recommendations
relative to such action by the Board.

The policy announced in this Resolution was not new. From
the time when they took over the administration of the University
from Mrs. Stanford in 1903 the Trustees had been seeking an
opportunity to review the University Departments and reform or
eliminate those considered weak or irrelevant. In the past,
efforts by the Trustees along these lines had been successfully
frustrated, sometimes by the President but more often by the
Academic Council. Now the requirements of the new Medical
Department had precipitated a financial crisis including a review
of all Departments as a result of which the Medical Department
would probably survive while some established Departments would be
reduced or eliminated.

Incoming President Branner was confronted with the Trustees'
unexpected and alarming resolution of August 29th. Furthermore,
when he examined the books, he discovered that the Medical
Department was already absorbing far more than the $ 25,000
annually agreed upon in the consolidation contract, and that its
requirements were steadily growing. His immediate reaction was to
attribute the critical state of the University's financial affairs
to the Medical Department. He informed Hoover, upon the latter's
return from England, that the University was rapidly approaching a
collapse as a university, and that the Medical Department must
either be endowed or its enormous and spiraling cost would swamp
the institution. [18]

Before responding to the Board regarding the resolution of August
29th, Dr. Branner made the following appeal for advice to
President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation to whom he wrote on
November 17 and December 6, 1913: [19]

The Trustees, realizing that our funds are not equal to the
task that the medical school imposes, are looking for a way out
of the dilemma. They think it possible for me to so overhaul
things here at the University that a lot of what they regard as
purely ornamental departments can be done away with and that this
will release funds enough to keep the medical school going. It is
unnecessary to tell you that it cannot be done. Only very small
economies are possible in the University. The medical school
wants at least $100,000 a year, in addition to hospitals and
equipment in an expensive city. . . Can you not give some
encouragement to abandon this medical school? How can it be done?
I'm ready enough to do anything that human effort can do. It will
make an awful row, I know, but if I can save the University I
don't mind either the row or the personal roasting I shall get.
Some of the Trustees will stand by me, others will fight me to
the finish, as will all the members of the medical faculty and
their friends. I fancy that most of the faculty outside of the
medical school will support me, but I am not sure about it at
all.

Dr. Jordan looks on the medical school as the child of his
old age, and the finest one in the family, but I am at liberty to
disregard his personal views.

On 20 December 1913 President Branner finally replied formally to
the University Committee of the Board of Trustees in response to
the economy resolution of 29 August 1913. He insisted that no
considerable economies were possible through departmental reforms
such as proposed in the resolution. Most of the departments, he
said, are "half-starved," with the exception of the Department of
Medicine, and therein lies the problem. Not only is the Medical
Department the most expensive but it is also the newest and the
least essential. He then made the following recommendations: [20]

That the Medical Department, including anatomy and
bacteriology, receive no further financial support from Stanford
University after July 31, 1914.

That the entire equipment (of the Medical Department) be
turned over to the University of California upon such terms as
the Trustees may be able to arrange with the Regents of the
University of California through a committee of experts suggested
below. Or, if for any reason, such a disposal is impossible, that
some such disposition be made of the Department and its
appurtenances as will entirely relieve Stanford University from
all expense in connection with it.

That a committee of three disinterested men, whose
knowledge of medical education and administration will entitle
their views to the highest respect and consideration, and who are
not likely to be influenced by local interests, be appointed to
settle the conditions of the transfer upon terms honorable and
satisfactory to both units.

President Branner's blunt and uncompromising response to the
Board's resolution of August 29th was unsettling to the Trustees.
And they were further disconcerted by the action of the Advisory
Board of the Academic Council whose members met on 26 December
1913 and promptly let it be known that they "approved
unreservedly" of President Branner's report to the Board of 20
December 1913 and of the "recommendations contained therein for
readjustment of the Medical Department."

In an effort to persuade Dr. Branner to moderate his
position, the Trustees took steps to dispel the impression that
cuts in departmental budgets were imminent. As President, Dr.
Branner had requested an increase of about $ 62,000 in the budget
for 1914-15 to meet the immediate needs of the University. After
some deliberation, and swayed by the insistence of Trustee Hoover
that the finances of the University were in much better condition
than alleged in the Board's resolution of 29 August 1913, the
Board met on 30 January 1914 and voted that the President's
request for an increase of $ 62,000 could be granted.

However discomfited they may have been, the Trustees at their
meeting on 30 January 1914 also acceded promptly to some of Dr.
Branner's other wishes by taking the following actions: [21] [22]

1. Appointed a special committee of the Board consisting of
Trustees Eels, Hopkins and Hoover to confer with a similar
committee of the Regents of the University of California. (Of the
three members of this committee one, in Dr. Branner's opinion,
was amenable to reason (Eels); one was strongly in favor of
Stanford's keeping its Medical Department (Hopkins);the third was
Hoover, a close friend of Dean Wilbur, and therefore also likely
to favor retaining the Department.)

2. Approved an attempt of the two medical deans to arrive
at a possible basis of union.

3. Acquiesced in Dr. Branner's proposal to bring President
Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation and Dr. Welch of the Johns
Hopkins Medical School to the Coast for a survey of the situation
and conference with the Trustees and Regents.

There ensued over the next six month a confusing flurry of
communications and consultations. Trustee Hoover was now taking an
increasingly active role in defense of the Medical Department, and
in settling the conflict provoked by the Board's resolution of
August 29th. In a confidential letter to Branner on 16 February
1914, Hoover urged him to reconsider his position on the grounds
of his having reacted under a "misapprehension" that the
University budget was in a precarious state - an impression which
should have been dispelled by the Board's granting of Branner's
request for a budget increase of $62,000. In consideration of this
latter action by the Board, Hoover strongly urged Brannan to
withdraw his recommendations of 20 December 1913 so that the
matter could be reconsidered at a later date under less difficult
conditions.

In spite of Hoover's appeal, President Branner was adamant.
On 19 February 1914 he informed Hoover that he would not withdraw
his recommendations of 20 December 1913 which he had made in
response to the explicit statement in the Trustees' resolution of
29 August 1913 that the University budget was overdrawn and that
departmental retrenchments were required. He resented Hoover's
suggestion that he had misinterpreted the Trustees' resolution and
on that account should now back down. "If the problem was not
properly stated by the Board,' Branner asserted, "then it lies
with the Board , and not with me, to set the matter right."

If President Branner was in no mood either to withdraw or
modify his recommendations of December 20th for termination and
disposal of the Medical Department, Hoover was equally unyielding
in his determination to fend off Branner's assault on the
Department. In a lengthy letter to fellow-Trustee and friend
Timothy Hopkins on 23 February 1914, just four days after the
uncompromising letter from Brannan, Hoover declared that the
situation was an "emergency" and listed a number of arguments for
retaining the medical school. Among other things, Hoover insisted
that "our institution can meet all present outlays out of its
income."

Just four days later, on 27 February 1914 at their monthly
meeting, the Board of Trustees adopted the following sharply
worded resolution, prepared by Hoover, specifically rejecting
Branner's recommendations of 20 December 1913 and essentially
retracting the Board's ill-conceived economy resolution of 29
August 1913: [23] [24] [25]

Whereas, the President of the University, evidently acting
under a misapprehension of the University's resources arising
from the terms of the Trustees' resolution of August 29th, 1913,
submitted on December 20, 1913 to the Board of Trustees
recommendations that the Medical School of Stanford University,
including the Departments of Anatomy and Bacteriology, receive no
further financial support from the University after July 31,
1914; and that its entire equipment be turned over to the
University of California upon such terms as the Trustees may be
able to arrange with the Regents; and that, for that purpose, a
committee of three disinterested men be appointed to settle the
conditions of the transfer upon terms honorable and satisfactory
to both universities.

And Whereas, the University Committee has considered these
recommendations and is unable to agree that such course is now
necessary

Now Resolved: That the University Committee reports to the
Board of Trustees:

1. That in its opinion the financial condition of Stanford
University does not now require, and may never require, such
drastic action as the abandonment of medical education; and that
for the abandonment of any important department the dignity and
reputation of the University demand much longer preparation and
notice than one semester.

2. That the University Committee is prepared to recommend
some system of joint action with the University of California in
the conduct of the two medical schools, if such a system can be
suitably formulated and agreed upon; but that it does not approve
turning over the entire equipment of the medical school to the
University of California; and that, if the Medical School is ever
to be abandoned, the only course open to the Trustees, in the
opinion of this Committee, is to return the School and its
property to the Cooper Medical College, from which we obtained it
under pledge that we could carry it on.

Early in March 1914 Hoover returned to England, but the medical
school controversy was far from over. Branner considered the
Trustees' favorable action on his request for a budget increase of
$62,000 to be merely temporizing. With respect to the Board's
resolution of 27 February 1914, he wrote: [26]

The claim is made . . . .that we have money enough to care
for all departments, medicine included. I am unable to speak
confidently on the subject for it has been the policy of the
Board hitherto not to allow the President to know about these
financial details. . . One unfortunate feature of the situation
is that the Medical Department is in San Francisco, thirty miles
away from the University, that it is not in vital touch with the
University, that it has the ear of the Trustees and that they
agree about new buildings, and about equipment and construction
and other matters concerning which the President is not
consulted. The result is that large sums of our general funds are
spent without the President knowing about it until after it is
done, and even then by accident or courtesy.. . . .

(Later, on 12 March 1914, he wrote:) Now that the budget
has been increased by $62,000 the Trustees seem to think I am
silenced. But at least $10,000 of that increase is for the
Medical Department, and it also has backdoor access to the
treasury. It will cost next year $110,000 to $150,000.

During the spring of 1914 efforts to resolve the future
status of the Medical School were proceeding along several lines.
In response to the urging of Dr. Branner, President Pritchett came
to California as a consultant to the Trustees on the future status
of the Medical Department..

When President Pritchett arrived in March and met with the
Trustee's Committee of Three, minus Hoover, he found that the
Trustees had in their resolution of 27 February 1914 firmly
decided to retain the Medical Department, and that they were not
amenable to Pritchett's now-familiar advice to merge the clinical
program of the Department with the University of California.

Pritchett's effort to influence the Trustees having failed,
Dr. Branner suggested calling an outside expert on medical
education to advise not merely upon the question of union with the
University of California, but also upon the question of Stanford
carrying on a separate medical school in case the union did not
take place.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on 27 March 1914,
President Branner was authorized to invite Dr. William Welch,
first Dean and Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins, to come to
San Francisco and make recommendations to Stanford University as
to the best plan for it to pursue in regard to Union of the two
Medical Schools.

Dr. Welch was called but, after some delay and upon talking
with Drs. Rixford and Stillman in New York, decided there was
nothing he could do, and declined the invitation.

Next to be invited to visit Stanford as a consultant to
President Branner and the Trustees was Victor C. Vaughan, Dean of
the Medical School of the University of Michigan. Dr. Vaughan
accepted the invitation but was not able to reach California until
29 May 1914.

Meanwhile, Dean Wilbur made the following lengthy and
perceptive Report to the Trustees, and engaged in Critical
Correspondence with Dean Moffitt of the UC Medical School and
President Timothy Hopkins of the Stanford Board of Trustees.

In 1910 there was considerable discussion between the
authorities of the two universities as to a possible union of the
Medical Departments. A conference was held between the Trustees,
the Regents and the University Presidents at which the problem was
discussed. Following this conference, a tentative proposition was
presented by Stanford to the University of California for
consideration. It apparently did not meet favorable reception on
the part of the University of California and nothing further was
heard of it officially until recently.

The Carnegie Foundation and others interested in Medical
Education have urged, at various times, the apparent desirability
of the two Universities combining their Medical Schools into one.
In October, 1913, the wisdom of such a plan was orally suggested
by the Dean of the University of California to the Dean of the
Stanford Medical School. Following this conversation, a
proposition was presented by me for discussion and consideration.
No answer was made to these suggestions until March, 1914. The
President of Stanford University had urged in December that an
effort be made to bring the Medical Schools together. Committees
were appointed by the Board of Trustees and by the Regents of the
University of California These committees have the general
principles of the subject still under discussion. The points,
which are up for decision at present, can best be indicated by
quoting from a letter written to the Dean of the University of
California Medical School on March 11 1914 as follows: (Emphasis
added.)

It would, I think, facilitate definite action of some sort
in regard to the possible union of the Medical Schools of our two
Universities to ask for prompt consideration by the authorities
of both institutions of the following points:

1. Is it desirable that the Universities should unite their
resources in Medicine into one large Medical School under common
management rather than continue the support and development of
two good schools?

2. If the first is settled in the affirmative, would the
following be an acceptable plan for the management and control of
the one School?

A.. -- The administration to be in the hands of a Board of
Managers of nine members constituted as follows:

Two regents

Two trustees

The Presidents of the two Universities

Three members chosen by the above

B. -- A Dean, the best available man regardless of
locality, to be selected by the Board of Managers.

C. -- A Faculty administration committee to be selected by
the Board of Managers.

The Universities to continue their present financial
support until endowments make the School independent financially.

All funds to be administered by the Board of Managers.

3. Is it desirable, if one school is decided upon, that all
departments of this school be gotten together and that the
courses given in Palo Alto and Berkeley which form part of the
curriculum of Medicine be concentrated in San Francisco.

It would be more feasible at the present time for both
Universities to give instruction leading to the degree of A. B.
and covering the first year in Medicine, but an ultimate plan
could include the combination of all work together in San
Francisco.

If the University authorities agree to the above premises,
then I think that the detailed plan submitted by me to you at a
previous time should be at once carefully considered. Until the
above principles are decided upon, the less time spent upon
details, the better. I do not agree with you that it is necessary
to call in an outside man or men to settle upon a plan provided
the Universities decide that it is desirable to unite their
forces in Medicine. Certainly we should not call in anyone until
we have exhausted all reasonable means of bringing about a
mutually satisfactory arrangement.

I will send a copy of this letter to the President of the
University and to the Committee of the Trustees in the hope that
it will bring about prompt and conclusive action as far as the
above enumerated items are concerned.

The position taken by Stanford has been to thoroughly
analyze the question of a union and to favor it, should it prove
to be the proper solution financially and educationally of the
Medical situation in San Francisco. The following extracts from
letters written to the President, I think, illustrate the point
of view of the Medical Faculty: (Emphasis added.)

The ambition of the Medical Faculty has been to develop a
small medical school of high quality to do the character of work
done previously by the Johns Hopkins Medical School without
falling into their error of overcrowding their facilities by
large classes.

Convinced that the small teaching unit is the best
particularly under the Stanford scheme and of the desirability of
"setting standards" so often insisted upon by Chancellor Jordan
when the buildings of Cooper Medical College were remodeled,
provision was made for classes of only twenty-five students each.
We assume that since the State University has begun medical
education that it will continue to develop it, but that it can
never limit the numbers or be independent of certain political
and community influences that will necessarily hamper the real
progress of medical education.

It is striking in this connection that the Rockefeller
Foundation, in its efforts to set certain medical standards that
seem to it desirable, has recently made gifts to the medical
schools of two private institutions, Johns Hopkins of Baltimore,
Maryland, and Washington University of St. Louis, Missouri,
instead of to the State Universities of the State in which these
schools are located or the more prominent State Universities
elsewhere.

I think that I express the feeling of the Medical Faculty
in regard to the proposed union with the University of California
in the following:

We have been willing and have proposed an association
provided it would maintain our present standards and permit of
growth enough to handle the necessarily enlarged classes. This
would in no way reduce the responsibilities or present expenses
of Stanford and would, we feel, not really advance medical
education unless someone came promptly forward with four or five
million dollars to endow the new medical school founded on the
resources of the two now in existence. To merely crowd in more
students, introduce politics and divide management would be no
real advance. We wish to be convinced that we will do a real
service to Medical education by giving up our present strong
position and ideals. It would be far better for us to handle
small classes in true Stanford fashion than to be immersed into a
large institution struggling to care for large numbers of
students with a meager budget.

If, with increasing endowment and hospital facilities, it
becomes feasible and desirable to educate larger classes,
arrangements for such purpose can readily be made without
handicapping existing work or crowding existing buildings and
hospitals. Stanford is at present in good position for growth,
first into a complete unit for small classes and then later into
additional units of like strength and size. The day of large
medical classes taught for the most part by lectures is gone, and
with its disappearance there has been an abrupt increase in the
expense of medical education.

If the plan limiting the upper classes of Medicine to
twenty-five students each is continued, Stanford can estimate
about what the expenses are to be including the number of
hospital beds required.

In case of a union, there are three possible plans.

1. The present Stanford site to be chosen and made the
basis for the new and greatly enlarged school.

2. The Parnassus Avenue site of the University of
California to serve as the nucleus.

3. Both present sites to be abandoned and land to be
purchased near the new San Francisco Hospital and a complete
plant to be erected there.

Plan No. 1 is the most economical as far as new
construction is concerned and the best one also for the care of
all classes of patients. Assuming then its selection as the site
for the combined schools and that only the strictly clinical
years are to be taught there, the problem is about as follows:

Stanford now has 18 students in the Sophomore class in
Medicine and the University of California has 45 students. In
1914-15, the Junior class of the combined school would probably
total at least 65 students. Our present facilities could be made
to do double work and be used for two sections of 25 each. We
would have to expect classes of 75 within a very few years.
Naturally while there might be some saving of expense from the
larger classes, Stanford would inevitably have to pay the half of
the education of all students so that its expense would be
greater than with its own classes of 25 each. No limit could
readily be set to the number of medical students by the
University of California while Stanford could do as Johns Hopkins
has done and refuse admission beyond a certain maximum. In other
words, there would be no saving to Stanford in a union but only
increased responsibility and increased expense. The question then
should be, is one large medical unit so desirable that Stanford
should increase its responsibility and its expense along medical
lines to bring it about? As indicated previously, unless a gift
of $3,000,000, or more is given to the combined school it would,
to maintain Stanford standards, be placed in a precarious
financial position.

The principal objection to a union from the standpoint of
Stanford University is based upon the financial side of the
question. It is not necessary to discuss the details of the
expense required for additional buildings, for the duplication of
work, the increase in hospital facilities and the increase in the
Instructing Staff to take care of the teaching of numerous small
sections, to show that without considerable endowment, a union of
the Medical Schools would be a larger burden upon Stanford
University. If Stanford desired only to put in a limited amount
of money, it could not demand equal representation in the
management. If it did not care to go beyond a certain amount and
had equal representation, it might interfere greatly with the
combined Medical School.

Both Universities are so established that they could not
make the sacrifice of their present sites and facilities and
disturb the work given at Berkeley and on the Stanford campus
without having independent funds bringing in at least $ 100,.000
to $150,000 per year available for the united schools. It is
unfortunate that while the Hooper endowment may be of great
service to Medicine on this Coast eventually, at present the
speculative features of the endowment make it more of a liability
than an asset in making financial plans for a united school.

That there would be some advantages in uniting the schools
provided funds were available is apparent. Without such funds,
there is certainly great advantage to Stanford remaining in its
present independent position. It is probable that this question
will soon be permanently settled and that some recognized expert
will be asked by the University authorities to review the
situation and give Stanford an opinion as to the wisest and most
economical course to pursue.

Critical Correspondence in Regard to Union of the Medical Schools
of Stanford University and University of California [28]

On 19 April 1914, the Dean of the University of California
Medical School, Dr. Herbert Moffitt, asked your Dean (Dr. R. L.
Wilbur) for a prompt answer upon certain phases of the proposed
union of the Schools and the following correspondence ensued:

20 April 1914

Dear Dr. Moffitt: Following your verbal request of today,
I presented to the Special Committee on Medicine the proposition
outlined by you. The Committee did not feel that it could give a
definite answer by ten o'clock tomorrow morning, since a meeting
of the Trustees had been called for Friday of this week and they
would have to wait until that meeting to come to a decision. I am
enclosing herewith a copy of a letter written to Mr. Hopkins,
President of the Trustees, in which I am presenting your
statement. If this does not meet with your approval in any
particular, please communicate with me at once as I wish to have
it authoritatively brought before the Trustees at this coming
meeting.

Dear Sir: The Dean of the University of California Medical
Department, Dr. Herbert C. Moffitt, asked me this morning to
obtain if possible from the Medical Committee or the Special
Committee of the Stanford Board of Trustees, a definite answer on
the union of the Medical Schools before ten o'clock Tuesday
morning, 21 April 1914. Dr. Moffitt wished to make at that time a
report to the Committee of the Regents of the University of
California. He wished to obtain a statement as to the attitude of
the authorities of Stanford University on certain propositions
concerning medical education which have been up for discussion.
This was in order to bring about prompt and final action through
a joint meeting of the Board of Trustees and the Regents should
it seem likely that a union of the Medical Schools could be
brought about.

When I informed him that Stanford was waiting until
Professor Welch of Johns Hopkins could come west before making a
decision, he stated that he did not see how they could keep their
building and other plans in abeyance so long nor did he see how
Professor Welch could contribute materially to the decision on
the essential points upon which decision must be reached.

The proposition advanced, as I understand it, by the
Regents through Dr. Moffitt is as follows: They consider it
desirable for the two Universities to unite their interests in
Medicine either upon the Parnassus Avenue site - the present site
of the University of California Medical School - or in the
Mission near the new San Francisco Hospital on the adjoining land
now owned by the Catholic Church. This land the Archbishop is
willing to sell at a reasonable figure, considerably less than $
200,000. It is part of the plan of the University of California
to construct a private pavilion, since they see the opportunity
in this way of producing income for the care of teaching
patients. The present site of the Stanford University Medical
School will not be an acceptable site for a joint school.

If Stanford goes into a union, it will not be asked to
contribute more than the amount now being spent for medical
education including Physiology, Anatomy, Embryology, etc. The
Regents of the University of California realize that there will
have to be an increasing amount put into medical education with
an increasing number of medical students, but will not ask
Stanford to share it with them. The Board of Managers is to be
constituted of five regents and three Trustees or upon some
similar basis. Future representation will depend upon the amounts
actually put in by the two institutions. With the majority of
Regents upon the Board, it apparently will not be necessary to
have a constitutional amendment in order to permit joint control
of funds by the Regents and the Stanford Trustees. The University
of California states that its present budget for Medicine is
about $200,000. This includes apparently the hospital expenses
and the Hooper Foundation.

I trust that you will be able to get a definite answer to
this proposition at the earliest possible date. I judge though
that it cannot come up before the meeting of the Board of
Trustees on Friday. If I can give you any further information,
please command me.

Dear Doctor Wilbur: Following your suggestion in your note
of April 20th, it has seemed to me wise to amplify certain
paragraphs of your communication to Mr. Hopkins. It is the
earnest wish of the Committee of the Regents to bring about a
union of the medical departments of the two Universities. Members
of the Committee feel that such a concentration of forces would
be of tremendous importance to the cause of medical education on
the entire Pacific Coast and they stand willing to make all
reasonable concessions to effect it. They would not wish to seem
hasty and to urge an immediate decision on the ground of the
necessity of developing at once the plans of the University
Hospital. They would be perfectly willing to await the arrival of
Doctor Welch provided certain fundamental propositions can be
accepted.

The Committee feels that the authority of the State is
invested in the Board of Regents and cannot be transferred to
others and that the State will be called upon in future to put
more money into Medicine and that the majority control of the
Board of Management of the united school must rest with the Board
of Regents. As you say in your note "The Board of Managers is to
be constituted of five Regents and three Trustees or upon some
similar plan."

The availability of different sites seems of secondary
importance and will be discussed later. The Committee feels,
however, that the present site of Lane Hospital does not admit of
suitable future expansion. Certain minor corrections of your note
may here be in order. It is part of the future plan of the
University of California to build a private pavilion in
connection with the (County) Hospital, but the chief aim of this
private department will not be to provide funds for the
maintenance of the teaching hospital. The budget for the support
of medicine this coming year is $ 157,000. This does not include
the hospital earnings or the income of the Hooper foundation.

Trusting that this note may be transmitted with your
communication to Mr. Hopkins and to the Trustees of Stanford
University, I remain,

Very truly yours, Herbert C. Moffitt, Dean Medical
School , University of California

Dear Sir: The Board of Trustees has considered the
correspondence which has recently passed between yourself and Dr.
Herbert C. Moffitt, Dean of the University of California Medical
School, relative to a proposed consolidation of the medical
schools of the respective universities.

The Board has requested me as President to transmit to you
the following resolution so as to enable you to reply to Dr.
Moffitt's letter:

Resolved: that in the opinion of the Board of Trustees of
Stanford University the trusts which they are administering do
not permit their turning over either property or income to be
managed and disbursed by any institution in which they do not
have at least an equal voice, and that they consider it
impossible to formulate any plan for the union of the medical
schools of the two universities on any other basis.

Yours truly, (Signed) Timothy Hopkins President

P. S. The letters referred to above are those of yourself
of the 20th to me as President and Dean Moffitt's letter to you
of April 24th.

Dear Dr. Moffitt: Please find enclosed copy of a letter
received this day from Mr. Timothy Hopkins, President of the
Board of Trustees of Stanford University, in reference to the
proposed union of the Medical Schools of the two Universities.
You will note by it that the Board does not see its way clear to
enter into a union upon the basis which you have stated in your
letter of April 24th is considered by the University of
California authorities as fundamental. I refer to the majority
control of the Board of Management of a united school resting
with the Board of Regents of the University of California.

I judge therefore that this permanently settles the
question of uniting the two Medical Schools. The trusts of the
two institutions apparently do not permit a satisfactory
arrangement to be made. I wish to express my appreciation of the
spirit in which you personally have considered this whole
question and to congratulate you upon the forward steps which you
have made in medical education. I trust that there will be no
difficulty in securing close cooperation of the two Medical
Schools in the advancement of higher medical standards upon the
Pacific Coast and wish to assure you of my willingness to assist
you in all efforts along those lines.

Very sincerely yours, (Signed) R. L. Wilbur

On 12 May 1914 the California Regents addressed the following
conciliatory response to the Stanford Trustees: [29]

After careful consideration of all that has hitherto
transpired (the California Regents) voted to express officially
to the Stanford Trustees their deep desire that an amalgamation
be consummated of the work in medicine of the two schools. They
are convinced that the welfare of medical education will be so
much advanced by such a merger that the opportunity of united
effort in this field by the two universities ought not to be
lost. The Regents, therefore, in earnest hope of the realization
of a plan of so much moment to the community, would request your
Board to suggest a basis on which in your opinion such a merger
in medical education may be brought about.

This proposal by the Regents, so consistent with the Pritchett
stratagem which called for making every effort to absorb the
Stanford school within the State system, forced the Stanford
Trustees to at last put to rest the persistent notion of a
truncated and subordinate medical school for Stanford. At their
regular meeting held on 29 May 1914 the Trustees were firm and
final in their decision:
[30]

Resolved, that this Board of Trustees, after full
deliberation, is reluctantly convinced that no basis of merger of
the said two medical schools can be formulated, or exists, which
is compatible with the legal powers and duties of either
university; and further that, if such merger could be formed, it
would cause no material saving in expense to either university,
and that the interests of each university and of the public will
be best served by the maintenance of the two separate schools,
each pursuing its own methods and standards and so far as
possible supplementing each other.

This resolution signaled the end of the medical school
controversy - and by this action the Trustees preserved a full
program of medical education as an integral part of Stanford
University.

The Vaughan Report

The definitive Board Resolution of 29 May 1914 was adopted on the
very day that President Branner's chosen expert, Dean Victor C.
Vaughan of University of Michigan School of Medicine, reached
California. The resolution had eliminated the purpose of his visit
before he could begin his investigation. Nevertheless the Michigan
Dean stayed on for a few days and studied the Medical Department
while Branner and the Trustees anxiously stood by, each hoping to
be vindicated by the consultant's report. Since the question of
union with UC had been settled before Dr. Vaughan reached
Stanford, the following report became one of advice upon the
maintenance and development by Stanford University of a separate
and complete medical school:
[31]

Dear Doctor: In compliance with your telegraphic request I
have visited Palo Alto and San Francisco and inspected the
libraries, laboratories and hospitals of Stanford University. The
laboratories of chemistry (general, physical, inorganic, organic
and physiological), biology, histology, neurology and physiology
are well housed, adequately equipped and exceptionally well
manned. In all these, high grade work is being done. The
laboratories of bacteriology and anatomy need better housing and
I understand that this is to be provided in the near future. But
in the buildings now occupied, most excellent work is being done.
In fact, each of the scientific departments at Stanford is under
the direction of an eminent man supplied with able and
enthusiastic assistants and with necessary equipment. There is
abundant evidence even in a hasty inspection that the
appropriations have been economically and wisely expended and
that good work is being done both in instruction and in research.
I wish to compliment the trustees and president upon the evident
wisdom which they have displayed in the development of these
departments of the university.

What I have said of the scientific branches is equally true
of the other departments of Stanford University. Although one of
the youngest of the higher institutions of learning in this
country, Stanford ranks as one of the best in all departments,
both scientific and humanistic. In all branches it represents the
highest aims and ideals. While I am not fitted to express
anything more than a general opinion as to other than scientific
education, I wish to emphasize the fact that all learning is one
and the same spirit should pervade the whole. This I believe to
be true at Stanford. It furnishes a wholesome atmosphere in which
the student can grow whatever special line of training he may
follow later. The greatest need of our country is the man whose
fundamental knowledge is broad and comprehensive and whose
special training is exact. No man can have useful knowledge of a
part unless he has general knowledge of the whole. The working of
the part must be in harmony with the movements of the whole,
otherwise disaster is the result. While I am especially
interested in medical education, I recognize the fact that it is
futile to try to develop a good medical man out of one whose
fundamental training has not been sound. The young man who has
learned to work with the right spirit whether it be in Greek or
biology, in philosophy or chemistry, will enter medicine, law or
any profession in the right frame of mind and will be likely to
prove an honor in his chosen profession.

In his preliminary college training the prospective medical
student should not be confined to the physical or biological
sciences. It is desirable that he know the classics, history and
philosophy and it is most desirable that the training that he
gets along these lines should be of the highest grade. I believe
that Stanford University furnishes suitable conditions for the
development of the young man who is going into medicine.
Therefore, I hope that the medical work done at Palo Alto may
continue. If the medical school should be closed, this would
relieve Stanford of only one of the laboratories at Palo Alto.
Physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, histology, embryology,
neurology and bacteriology must be taught and research work in
these branches must be done in a university of the high rank
Stanford holds. Closing the medical school would give only
trifling financial relief to the university. I therefore
recommend that the premedical and medical work now done at Palo
Alto be not only continued but be developed as fast as the
finances of the university permit.

I make this recommendation not only for the good of the
medical school, but, as I believe, in the interest of the
university as a whole. If the medical department should be
discontinued, anatomy is the only subject which could be dropped
at Palo Alto and even then this should not be done. Anatomy is
one of the great and fundamental biological sciences and even
human anatomy should be taught in a great scientific university.
Anatomy is no longer taught as a mere foundation for medicine and
surgery. It includes the development of structure from the lowest
to the highest forms of life.

I went to San Francisco and made an inspection of the
library, hospital and laboratories of the medical school.

The Lane Library is one of the best medical libraries in
the country. It is supplied with practically all the best medical
journals so arranged as to be most available to members of the
faculty and students. Its location in regard to the hospital and
laboratories is quite ideal. It is worth much to both the
clinical and the research man to have at his hand the best
contributions of the world. When a problem comes up for solution
the first thing to learn is to ascertain what has already been
done along this line. A medical school without a library is like
a boat without a pilot, and much time is likely to be lost in
drifting. The medical department of Stanford is fortunate in the
possession of its library.

While the present hospital building is somewhat out of date
it is, so far as I can see, admirably managed both in caring for
the sick and in the instruction of students. The out-patient
department, systematized as it is, is both a great, broad and
needful charity and at the same time a source of varied and
comprehensive instruction to students. The addition soon to be
made to the hospital will modernize the institution. It will
bring more pay patients to the institution and thus furnish funds
with which the less fortunate can be cared for. I was greatly
pleased with the management of the hospital. The laboratories in
the hospital are ably conducted and fairly well equipped. Some of
them will probably have enlarged and improved quarters when the
addition is made to the hospital.

As I understand, the total cost of the medical department
is now about one hundred thousand dollars per year. This cost
will slowly increase. Notwithstanding this fact, I strongly urge
that the medical school be not only continued but be developed.
In its development the quality of its work should be constantly
held in mind. The number of medical students should be kept
small. Quality and not quantity should be the aim.

I believe that in the near future the medical department
will be a source of strength to the university in many ways.
First, in the importance of the research done and the benefits
that such research will confer on the race. Within the past
thirty years the average human life has been increased nearly
fifteen years and the whole of life has been made more
comfortable. This is a work to which a great university should
contribute. The opening of the Panama Canal will bring to the
Pacific Coast many health problems which can be best solved in
such a school of instruction and research as I believe Stanford
will develop. Second, I am firm in the belief that the medical
school will attract large donations, both for research and the
clinical work. Philanthropists will see that the best service
they can render lies in the direction of improved health
conditions. Third, medicine is now attracting to its ranks many
of the best of our young men and this will be a source of
strength to the university.

Lastly, I come to the matter on account of which I was
called to visit you. The time may come when it may be wise to
consolidate the two university medical schools in San Francisco,
but I do not believe that this would be wise at present.
Stanford, from what I can learn, can afford to develop its
medical school without material hindrance in the growth of other
branches and I believe that this is the wise thing to do.

I am aware of the fact that a hasty visit, such as I have
made, may give erroneous impressions and I would not have you
attach any great importance to this report, but I have tried to
look at matters from a broad viewpoint, and to hold constantly in
mind the good of Stanford University as a whole. I have
considered it unnecessary to go into financial or other details
with which you are much more familiar than I am.

In conclusion I wish to thank you, . . . .and Dr. Wilbur
and other members of your faculty for the many courtesies shown
me and to express the hope that the growth of Stanford University
during the past quarter of a century, phenomenal as it has been,
may be surpassed in its future developments.

With great respect, I am, Yours most respectfully,
V. C. Vaughan.

The Board of Trustees considered Dean Vaughan's
complimentary report to be supportive of their decision to
maintain and develop the Medical School in its current form. Under
the strong and partisan presidency of Timothy Hopkins, and the
persuasive advocacy of Herbert Hoover, the Board had rescued the
School from major internal and external threats to its survival.

President Branner conceded that "Vaughan's report has some good
things in it, and some that time alone can characterize. The
trustees naturally feel that they have won out, feeling so they
were the more ready to follow my recommendations (on other
matters). . . The medical skeleton is now put away in its closet,
and in my day it is not likely to be seen again.. . .In view of
Dr. Vaughan's report and the difficulties standing in the way of a
union of the two schools it only remains for us to go forward with
the medical school as it is."
[32] [33]

Regarding the propriety of San Francisco as the site of two
competing medical schools, Dean Vaughan and the Stanford Board of
Trustees were better prophets than President Pritchett and Abraham
Flexner. Also notable is the contrast between Flexner's harsh
assessment of the Cooper/Stanford medical program in 1909.and the
Vaughan report of 1914. Because of their doctrinaire mind-set,
Flexner and Pritchett failed to appreciate the significance of the
transition already clearly in progress from proprietary medical
college to university medical school at Stanford - the most
academically promising university in the West.

If President Pritchett were alive today he would be
surprised to see how far off was his estimate on the medical
needs of the Pacific Coast. No one could foresee the great
expansion in population and in medical practice. It now seems
clear that the medical profession of any community of a half
million or so inhabitants can best serve that community by
developing a medical institution of some sort where students are
accepted either for the medical course or for training in their
postgraduate work.

Endnotes

"Addresses of Timothy Hopkins, Emmet
Rixford and David Starr Jordan," Dedication of the Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco, November 3, 1912 (Stanford University,
California: Published by the University, 1912), pp.6-17.Lane
Library Catalog Record

"Addresses of Timothy Hopkins, Emmet
Rixford and David Starr Jordan," Dedication of the Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco, November 3, 1912 (Stanford University,
California: Published by the University, 1912), p.6.Lane
Library Catalog Record

"Addresses of Timothy Hopkins, Emmet
Rixford and David Starr Jordan," Dedication of the Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco, November 3, 1912 (Stanford University,
California: Published by the University, 1912), pp.19-28.Lane
Library Catalog Record

"Addresses of Timothy Hopkins, Emmet
Rixford and David Starr Jordan," Dedication of the Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco, November 3, 1912 (Stanford University,
California: Published by the University, 1912), pp.29-31.Lane
Library Catalog Record

Christina Man-wei Li , "The History of
the Lane Medical Library, 1912 - 1967" (Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of Librarianship, San Jose College in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of
Arts), Fig. 2, Lane Medical Library, San Francisco. Photograph of
the building, p. 39.Lane
Library Catalog Record

Christina Man-wei Li , "The History of
the Lane Medical Library, 1912 - 1967" (Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of Librarianship, San Jose College in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of
Arts), p. 39, Fig. 2, Lane Medical Library, San Francisco.
Photograph of library.Lane
Library Catalog Record

Christina Man-wei Li , "The History of
Lane Medical Library, 1912 - 1967" (Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of Librarianship, San Jose College in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of
Arts), p. 44, Fig. 3, General Reading Room of Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco. Photograph.Lane
Library Catalog Record

Christina Man-wei Li , "The History of
Lane Medical Library, 1912 - 1967" (Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of Librarianship, San Jose College in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of
Arts), p. 44, Fig. 3, General Reading Room of Lane Medical
Library, San Francisco. Photograph.Lane
Library Catalog Record

John C. Branner , Annual Report of the
President of the University for the Twenty-third Academic Year
ending July 31, 1914 (Stanford University, California: Published
by the University, 1914), pp. 17-20.